When we had our house in Streamwood we watched a lot of movies. We also spent a huge amount of time with computer games--but another time...
The Blockbuster staff knew us by name. They knew what we liked, and often held aside a copy of new releases for us. They would stay upen an extra fifteen minutes if we hadn't come in yet. When customers asked for movie reviews they would sometimes get sent to us if we were there. We could walk down the new release wall and comment on nearly every non-horror title.
Listening to movie reviews on the radio, or watching previews, was a hobby...something I earnestly liked. I knew which times different radio shows reviewed movies during commuting hours. That hobby lasted past the active watching era.
Now, on the other hand, I've pretty much accepted that movies are not a significant part of our lives. I think we've seen one movie on the big screen this year, although I couldn't tell you what. Oh, other than Ratattoille, which counts separately since we took the kids and it was work-sponsored. We now average one to two rentals a month. Hardly dominating our time.
I've finally (and somewhat recently...over the last few months probably) stopped bothering to listen to movie reviews. For any movie that comes out...we're actually pretty unlikely to see it. And even then only the high-priority ones. Movies--and therefore movie reviews--just aren't important anymore.
Right now it's TV that has us. But not purely because we want to watch it, per se. It's light escapism. The kids go down and we just want something simple for an hour or so before bed.
Sometimes we get stuck and go to bed an hour later than planned. We don't watch anything while the kids are awake, and there are a few shows we really like.
But at the same time, I sometimes ask myself: If we cancelled the dish and went withouth, which ones would I genuinely be frustrated at missing?
Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and the 4400.
Bionic Woman (has good potential--curious where they're taking it...), Stargate Atlantis (Ronan rocks, but is the main strength of the show), Eureka (which just wrapped up season 2--we'll see if it gets a 3rd), Moonlight (fun so far, if it lasts...?), Chuck (still too new to know and probably doomed anyway)... All those I would get over before all that long.
There are plenty of ways our lives could improve if we unplug. Plenty of other ways to fill the time. But maybe right now we still need the sanity break time. Or maybe it's holding us back from fixing the things causing some of the stress in the first place.
I just don't know...
Posted by fictionman at October 19, 2007 07:26 PM | TrackBack (0)